The High Court will Tuesday deliver a ruling on whether to suspend the impeachment trial of Deputy President Righathi Gachagua at the Senate Assembly.
The ruling will be delivered at 2:30 PM.
It will come a day before the Senate Assembly commences the hearing of the impeachment motion against the DP that is set to commence on Wednesday.
Justice Chacha Mwita set the date after Gachagua, the National Assembly and the Senate heavily submitted their arguments on the case on Monday for four and a half hours.
Senior Counsel Paul Muite and Tom Macharia told Justice Chacha Mwita that the public participation process leading to his impeachment was a ‘sham’.
Gachagua said his rights were violated considering the insufficient time that was allocated for the exercise.
He insisted that for public participation to be satisfactory it must be meaningful and within reasonable time.
“The assembly had no right to limit themselves to only 12 days which resulted in inadequate public participation in such a weighty matter,” said Muite.
He explained that even though the Kerugoya court directed that public participation should be done at the constituency level, the notice issued by Parliament on that same day came out quite late.
“Where was the time for the people of Kenya to be made aware that there will be public participation the following day?” posed the SC.
They further took issue with the manner in which the proceedings have been hurriedly conducted asking the court to stop the Senate trial as they challenge various gross violations of the law that have been committed during the whole process.
In a rejoinder, the National Assembly and the Senate said it’s not mandatory that every citizen must participate in a public participation exercise.
“All the national assembly did was give them an opportunity. The 282,000 were the ones who voluntarily participated,” said Benson Milimo representing the Speaker of the Assembly.
They also accused Gachagua of forum shopping saying he has filed a multiplicity of cases seeking similar orders touching on his impeachment motion.
This was strongly opposed by DP’s legal team.
The National Assembly in closing urged the court not to issue the orders sought as they will destabilize the process which is currently before the Senate.
The Senate through Advocate Mercy Thanji said allegations of gross violation of the constitution facing the DP need to be tested.
She said it’s only the senate hearing that will determine whether there has been a violation of law to warrant whether he should be removed from office and whether he is fit as required in chapter 6 of the constitution.
“It can’t be in the interest of the public that the trial be haltered after the National Assembly debated on the impeachment motion which garnered more than two-thirds,” said Thanji.
